Pope Clement VII

Pope Clement VII (26 May 1478-25 September 1534), born Giulio di Giuliano de Medici, was Pope from 19 November 1523 to 25 September 1534, succeeding Pope Adrian VI and preceding Pope Paul III.

Biography
Giulio di Giuliano de Medici was born in Florence, Republic of Florence on 26 May 1478, the son of Giuliano de Medici and his mistress Fioretta Gorini. His father was murdered exactly one month before his birth, and he was raised by his uncle Lorenzo the Magnificent as one of his own sons. He was educated by humanists like Poliziano and alongside prodigies such as Michelangelo. He was a talented musician and intended to have a military career, but following the death of his father in 1492 and the consecration of Giovanni de Medici as a cardinal, Giulio became more involved in church affairs. He studied canon law at the University of Pisa, and Giulio and Giovanni spent much of the 1490s and early 1500s in exile due to the overthrow of the Medici family in Florence.

In 1513, Giovanni became "Pope Leo X", and he decided to make Giulio Archbishop of Florence on 9 May and a cardinal on 23 September. He maintained the Medici interest in Florence as archbishop, and King Francis I of France also appointed Giulio as Archbishop of Narbonne, which was ruled by a Vicar General. In 1517, he was finally ordained as a priest and was consecrated as a bishop. Giulio was the main director of papal policy for the rest of Leo X's papacy, especially as Cardinal Protector of England.

Papacy
Giulio supported the election of the short-lived Pope Adrian VI in 1522, and he was elected Pope after Adrian's death the next year. In 1525, Pope Clement abandoned the Papal States' alliance with the Holy Roman Empire and Spain and instead allied with France and the Republic of Venice, acquiring Parma and Piacenza, guaranteeing Medici rule over Florence, and granting the free passage of French troops to Naples. After King Francis I of France was defeated at the Battle of Pavia, Pope Clement defected to the Imperial side, only to return to the French side during the War of the League of Cognac. Soon, he found himself alone in Italy, as even the pro-French Alfonso d'Este supplied the Imperial forces with cannon. In 1527, Spanish and German mercenaries sacked Rome and imprisoned the Pope, who escaped disguised as a peddler and took shelter in Orvieto. He came back to Rome in 1528, but he found that the city was depopulated, and that republican enemies of the Medici had ousted the Medici from Florence once more. In 1529, he made peace with Emperor Charles V, and he agreed to restore the Medici to power, doing so after conquering Florence in 1530. Pope Clement also faced a foreign policy issue when King Henry VIII of England decided to divorce Catherine of Aragon to marry the servant Anne Boleyn; the Pope had objected to the divorce, and he had King Henry and Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer excommunicated. In 1534, King Henry proclaimed the split of the Church of England from the Catholic Church, a major blow to Catholicism. Pope Clement died that same year.